Station Casinos’ Durango Breaks Ground on Phase II of Development

American casino & hospitality company Station Casinos has embarked on a new expansion journey, setting out to enhance its Durango Casino and Resort. The new development marks the beginning of the second phase of the property’s expansion, the Las Vegas Review-Journal announced.

Phase II of Development Has Commenced

Durango Casino and Resort, located in the Rhodes Ranch community in the Las Vegas Valley, is one of Station Casinos’ newer properties. After a turbulent construction period, which faced lengthy delays, the property finally opened on December 5, 2023.         

Station Casinos, which operates the property, has now begun its $116 million Phase II expansion of the property. Announced on Monday, the new project would expand the complex with a number of new facilities.

The second phase of development would see a new parking garage with some 2,000 spots added to the property. The parking garage is being built south of the casino’s south entrance.

In addition to that, gamers will get an additional 25,000 square feet of new casino space. According to the announcement, the new additions to the gaming area will include some 230 slot machines. It will contain a high-limit slot area with 120 new machines, as well as a new bar.

The development of the new facilities will take 12 months to complete, Stations Casinos projected.

Durango’s Realization Took Over Two Decades

Despite its troubled development, Durango now stands as a major contributor to casino gaming win in southwest Las Vegas, as seen in reports by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

The land where the casino stands was purchased by Station Resorts in 2000 for under $37 million. Four years later, the company proposed a casino with 215,000 square feet of gaming space and a 1,000-room hotel. However, this project received some opposition from local residents who said that the proposed property did not fit the definition of a neighborhood casino.

The casino was nevertheless approved, although the gaming area was capped at 120,000 square feet. Further revisions, however, delayed the project until 2019 when it was revived by Station Casinos’ parent company, Red Rock Resorts, because of its favorable location.

Construction began in 2022 and, as mentioned, the casino opened at the end of 2023. It now boasts an 83,000-square-foot gaming area, a 10,000-square-foot sportsbook, multiple restaurants, and a 209-room hotel.

Station Casino Challenged NLRB’s Authority

In other news, Station Casinos recently filed a lawsuit against the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), arguing that the board’s system has “failed it.” The casino company sought to challenge union-busting allegations it was subject to in court and argued that the NLRB did not have the authority to prosecute these claims against its business.

For context, the case referred to a complaint from 2021, which alleged that Red Rock Resorts, used the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to fire inconvenient workers and intentionally undermine the Culinary Local 226 union.